Should I be paid when traveling for work?

If your job requires traveling to different locations in order to work, your travel costs might be significant. In addition to this, you might spend a lot more time traveling to some work locations than others. This will likely lead you to wonder whether you have the right to be compensated for the time spent traveling.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) initially did not fully address the question of whether travel time should be considered as hours worked. Therefore, an amendment was created called the Portal-to-Portal Act, in order to clear this issue up.

What does the Portal-to-Portal Act say about being paid for travel time?

First, the Portal-to-Portal Act states that employees do not have the right to be paid for time spent traveling from home to their workplace at the beginning of the end of the working day. However, there are exceptions to this. If the ordinary workday has ended and the employee is asked to work a long distance away for an urgent reason, they should be paid for the time it takes them to travel to this location.

In addition, there are other rules under the Portal-to-Portal Act on travel between locations during the working day. If an employee has to move between offices in the city half-way through the day, for example, they can count this time as hours worked.

If a dispute has raised between yourself and your employer regarding travel pay, it is important that you understand your rights under the Portal-to-Portal Act.

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